2015 F1 season

Max Verstappen, the 16-year-old Formula Three driver and son of former F1 racer Jos Verstappen, will make his Formula One debut for Toro Rosso next year.

The team has confirmed Verstappen will drive for them next year alongside Daniil Kvyat, replacing Jean-Eric Vergne.

Verstappen, who was signed to Red Bull junior programme last year, is currently in his first year driving single seaters having graduated from kart racing. He will be 17 when he makes his F1 debut, making him the youngest driver to compete in the world championship.

His rapid promotion to their Formula One programme moves him past the three other drivers on Red Bull’s young driver programme: Formula Renault 3.5 points leader Carlos Sainz Jnr, GP3 points leader Alex Lynn, and Pierre Gasly, currently third in Formula Renault 3.5.

Despite Verstappen’s lack of experience, Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost says Red Bull “consider Max to be as one of the most skilled young drivers of the new generation and we believe he has the necessary maturity and mental strength to take on this challenge successfully”.

“Bearing in mind that Scuderia Toro Rosso was created with the aim of bringing young talent from the Red Bull Junior Team into Formula One and to educate them,” Tost added, “it will now be up to us to provide Max with a competitive car, which will enable him to have the best possible start to his Formula One career”.

Tost added his thanks to Vergne, who will leave the team after his third year in F1. “He has produced strong performances, but unfortunately he was also hindered by some reliability problems, especially in the first half of the current season.”

“We hope that we have resolved these problems and that he will be able to end the second half of this season on a high note and thereby show that he still deserves another opportunity in Formula One.”

Verstappen said: “First of all I would like to thank Dr Helmut Marko and Red Bull for all their trust and giving me the chance to make my Formula debut in 2015 with Scuderia Toro Rosso,” he said. “Ever since I was seven years old, Formula One has been my career goal, so this opportunity is truly a dream come true.”

“There are several people that have helped me throughout the years and still support me to this day and I want to sincerely thank them. First of all a big thanks to my father Jos, who has always been by my side, day and night, year after year.

“Of course I’m very thankful for all my sponsors who’ve believed in my talent and supported me in these financially difficult times. I hope that I can maintain a wonderful collaboration with them as I embark on this exciting new phase in my career. I also want to thank my manager Raymond Vermeulen, for all his efforts in making this agreement possible.

“Finally, thanks to all the teams in the various karting and single-seater categories for their vital help and support. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

“We’ve all worked tremendously hard to reach Formula 1 and I will give my absolute best to be successful in the pinnacle of motorsport. With the return of the Verstappen name to Formula One, I hope we can relive old memories and I’m hoping to see many fans at all the grand prix circuits.”

Verstappen is poised to emulate his father by making a very early Formula One debut. Jos Verstappen had started 52 single-seater races when he started his first grand prix at Brazil in 1994. Max has competed in 40 races since graduating from karts last year.

183 comments on Max Verstappen to become youngest ever F1 driver with Toro Rosso in 2015

Congratulations to Max on reaching his goal of becoming a F1 driver. However I am worried for him as a human being. I hope he avoids a fate akin to child stars Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber of having so much at a young age and subsequently going off the wall.

Have you ever seen the fellow… he’s a very normal down to earth guy… and the moment he starts floating his dad will kick him back down to earth.. he is the real deal… but I’m curious if the “older” F1 generation will like his attacking race style

No way! Admittedly, I will be sad to see JEV go. I fear Max’s inexperience (1 year in single seaters) makes him a far too premature entry. This seems like Red Bull are looking for some records. Who knows he could really perform. I think JEV has sat on that seat for too long now

Wow, that is hugely rushed by Toro Rosso. I’m in agreement that 17 is far too young to be in Formula One (although part of me might just be bitter because it’ll be the first driver younger than me). I also agree that Sainz Jr. and Lynn will probably feel a bit gutted, but non more so than Jean-Eric Vergne.

Like Jaime Alguersuari before him he’s shown to be quite a talent, but has been really let down by mechanical failures compared to his team mates, something completely out of his control. Unfortunately, his three years are up though, but I think it’s a huge mistake to let him go. I really hope that unlike Jaime another team picks him up, he deserves to stick around, more-so than Maldonado, Sutil, Gutierrez, Chilton and Ericsson AT THE VERY LEAST.

People may comment that he wasn’t as good as Ricciardo, but I disagree. Over the entire weekend they were very closely matched, and Ricciardo has two wins this season. I reckon Vergne could have done the same. I really really hope he doesn’t end up out of the sport.

On the other side of the coin, delighted for Verstappen, and good on him. Nice to see what hopefully will turn out to be a quality Dutchman back on the grid!

A lot of people will comment about his age, as if it somehow matters. Driver’s ability is all that matters. Color, sex, age, orientation etc is just relevant for PR.

Though valid questions can be asked like: Could he do with a bit more experience and wouldn’t the F1 team bosses need to see more good performances, to be able to make a relatively safe decision to hire him?

I think Yes! and Yes! to both of those question, but isn’t that sort of what Torro Rosso is for?

Here’s a thought – when Jos last raced in Formula 1, he was competing alongside Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen. Max will most likely do the same next year. Would that be the first time a driver has competed against the same Formula 1 drivers as his father/?

I don’t know if there were more but I certainly know that Mario Andretti raced against Riccardo Patrese in 1978-1982, and his son Michael raced for McLaren in 1993 also against Patrese, who drove his last season in F1 for Benetton.

As the saying goes: if you’re good enough you’re old enough. What an exciting young team Toro Rosso will have, and there’ll be more pressure on Kvyat being the senior driver (it’s mad to be saying that at 20). It is a gamble though.

I hope Vergne manages to find a seat elsewhere, he’s definitely earnt a future in F1. I also expect Caterham to field at least one Red Bull junior in the near future. Sainz might get his chance there. Lynn and Gasly will have to wait or perhaps leave the Red Bull family.

Alright, let’s get the bias out of the way: I’m Dutch and I’ve followed his progress since the beginning of 2013. Just six weeks ago, I saw him win the Zandvoort Masters, so yeah, I’m a bit of a fan.

However, I think this is a mistake. He is very mature for his age, but he is simply not experienced enough to adapt to Formula 1 quickly enough. I’m afraid that by the time he’s up to speed with his team mate (Kvyat or whoever will be driving there in 2016), Red Bull has already given up on him. So it’s definitely a questionable move from the Verstappens.

For Red Bull, it’s a gamble. On one hand, they probably didn’t want to lose Verstappen to Mercedes, so they kinda one-upped each other until Marko offered him a seat at Toro Rosso, I suppose. On the other hand, if driver weight is becoming ever more important, they probably want to see what a not yet full-grown teenager could do in Formula 1.

It’s a massive shame for Red Bull’s other talents: Sainz looked pretty much certain to get that second seat at Toro Rosso until Verstappen came along. It’s a big blow for Gasly and Lynn too. The Red Bull Junior Team is harsh.

But this is great news for F1 in Holland. At the moment F1 is behind the pay-wall, but RTL 7 (free-to-air F1 broadcaster until 2012) is already broadcasting one F3 race live, simply because Verstappen is doing so well. They may buy the F1 rights for 2015, which would be fantastic. The motorsport culture in Holland is pretty much on a respirator, so this could really be a turn-around.

@andae23 I also think it is a gamble. Verstappen is exceptionally talented but he “graduated” from karting less than a year ago and he is still going to be two years younger than Jaime Alguersuari, who is currently the youngest Formula One driver ever. I also had my doubts about Daniil Kvyat and he has been doing well but now Dr. Marko has taken the Red Bull driver development program to new extremes. I wonder if the success stories of Vettel, Ricciardo and Kvyat (so far) have encouraged him to take even more risks.

It does not look like Red Bull Racing will need to replace both of their drivers during the next few years. It means that only one of the youngsters, either Kvyat or Verstappen, is likely to be promoted and Kvyat is on the “pole position” at the moment. For sure, there are always other teams but so far Red Bull Junior Team drivers have not been popular with the other teams as only Liuzzi has been able to find another team after leaving the Red Bull empire.

First of all, I’ll admit that whatever I’m writing here will go out the window the moment I see the Verstappen name on an F1 car again and especially when I run to the nearest PC to check on his FP times at Melbourne next year.

But this isn’t good. Max has proven himself to be a very fast driver and a very fast learner. However, he’s made plenty of mistakes and frankly could do very well with a year of FR3.5 or GP2 to get used to being in the spotlight, a more technical car and, frankly, learn to deal with more technical failures and drivers crashing into him. Not all drivers will react to some of his risky overtakes as Fuoco has.

Most of all I’m surprised by Jos. He’s been very vocal about his own F1 debut, saying it ‘sort of’ came too early and how he went backwards in his career. With Max making his debut at Toro Rosso, he probably won’t go backwards soon (rather straight out of F1 if he doesn’t perform) but he’s being thrown a lot further off the deep end than Jos ever was.

I just hope, as a fan of his father, I won’t have to mourn another ‘would be’ Verstappen in 10 (or rather, 11) years time. At least there are no more gravel traps for the Dutch media to make jokes about..

@xtwl I see Vermeulen’s hand in this mostly, he’d probably be the one to talk the Verstappens into ‘you know what would be a great deal? Getting into F1 next year!’. After all, he studied under Rothengatther, Jos’ manager, who managed to mess up any dealings with Eddie Jordan (probably Jos’ biggest fan on the paddock at the time) ad infinitum…

As you say, especially Jos knows what happens when you enter F1 without being well prepared.
He got half a chance in his first season when he wasn’t physically ready.
My guess was 2015 GP2 or FR3.5 and 2016 F1.
Than I read this interview: http://www.verstappen.nl/?locatie=bericht&id=1882&lang=en

Some critics will suggest a year or two in GP2 or FR 3.5 would ease Max into F1 as the lap times between GP2 and Formula 1 don’t differ that much. Jos disagrees. “Plenty of drivers didn’t make it through GP2 so after carefully deliberating with Max, Raymond and Red Bull, we came to the conclusion that F1 is the best option for Max.”

From now on, it is all about Max’ preparation ahead of the 2015 season. Jos explains the vital points junior needs to work on: “He has to put in plenty off miles in faster cars, he has to become physically stronger and practice in the simulator. At Toro Rosso, he has to become an integral part of the team and get the right feel for what’s going on. Instead of working with five people, he’ll have to get used to working with fifty”, explains Jos.

He has been something special to watch in F3 – really exciting & I can’t wait to see him in F1. Surprising that it has happened so soon though – I suppose the RedBull program has nothing to lose and everything to gain, however Max could find his career hits the buffers very quickly if it all goes belly up…

His age wouldn’t be such a big deal if drivers could actually get hundreds if not thousands of testing miles in an F1. I can’t think of a sport where the players are not encouraged to practice as much as possible…. sports are one of the proofs of “practice makes perfect”.